114 
MISCELLANY, 
orchards have been infested by a caterpillar about half an inch in length, with 
light green sides, dark green back, and of a most prolific and destructive character 
Myriads of these insects have been found on every tree in the districts where they 
have made their appearance, and stripped them not only of their blossom, but 
every leaf. The appearance of the trees is truly distressing, and unless one saw 
them it would be difficult to believe the devastation they have created. The 
trees are without a leaf, and have these destructive insects swinging from them 
by a sort of web in numberless festoons; and the mischief is, that where they 
have made their appearance they have not only destroyed the prospect of a crop 
for the present year, but the year following; leaf, blossom, and bud, have all dis¬ 
appeared before them.— Western Times , June , 1838. 
GEOLOGY. 
The Mantellian Museum. —We are happy to hear that the valuable and 
celebrated collection of Dr. Gideon Mantell has been purchased by Government, 
and will be removed towards the close of the year from Brighton to the British 
Museum. The specimens amount to nearly 20,000. 
Footsteps of Cheirotherium. —We have received some well-executed litho¬ 
graphic drawings representing the footmarks of Cheirotherium lately discovered 
at Storeton-Hill Quarry, Cheshire, in the New-Red-Sandstone formation. We 
believe Dr. Grant— who was lecturing at the Liverpool Mechanics’ Institution 
at the time the impressions were discovered—considers that the large ones are 
the footsteps of a reptile, and not of a Marsupial animal. Capt. Thomas Brown 
attended one of the meetings of the Liverpool Natural History Society while the 
affair was on the tapis , and suggested that the animal could not possibly belong 
to the Opossum family, the members of which take leaps, whereas the present 
animal has evidently walked, and in so doing appears to have crossed its legs, as 
indicated by the impressions on the large slab. The drawings are lithographed for 
the Liverpool Natural History Society. —Ed. 
Origin of the World.— The Doncaster Chronicle of Oct. 13 contains a letter 
from the Rev. W. Cockburn, Dean of York, to Prof. Phillips, complaining that 
he cannot comprehend the various geological theories of the origin of the world, 
and requesting the professor to expound his views on the subject. Prof. Phillips, 
in reply, refers the Dean to the statements contained in his published works, and 
candidly states his unwillingness to increase the number of theories on this head. 
At the same time he observes that he has neither the time nor the inclination to 
enter into the lengthened statement necessary to explain his opinions to a non- 
geological inquirer, in an epistolary form. —Ed. 
